NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Targeted sequencing matched mutations to therapeutic options in more than half of the non-small cell lung cancer patients analyzed in a new study.

NSCLC accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of the approximately 222,500 new lung cancer cases in the US each year. Recent studies have uncovered a number of genes that are frequently mutated in NSCLC and guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommend testing for seven genes in NSCLC patients to match them to targeted therapies.

In a new study, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used a gene-sequencing panel to analyze 932 samples from NSCLC patients to see whether they harbored mutations in those NCCN genes or other genes associated with targeted therapies. As they reported in Genome Medicine, Mount Sinai’s Fei Ye and her colleagues found that the majority of patients did harbor such mutations. They additionally found mutations among a portion of NSCLC patients that could indicate that they are sensitive to JAK inhibitor therapy and anti-PD1 immunotherapy.